Mauka Weekend

Friday we got a call from Dave and Chris Briscoe. They have an open night at the Lawrence Welk Resort in Escondido and we decided to go over there Saturday. I was there on my bike on Thursday for the first time ever. Lived in San Diego for 32 years and never been to Lawrence Welk. Thursday was to ride to Temecula. Saturday was so the kids could play at the pool and set us up to visit Chris and Lynn Smith in Poway.

The Smiths’ house burned down in the Cedar fire in ’07. They had it rebuilt and were having a house warming party. We showed up in time for dinner and to hear the band. The dinner was good. Daphne’s Greek catered. The warm-up band was pretty good. But at about 8PM, Lynn’s brother got up on with the band in the corner of the patio and worked the band up to a froth. The guitarist until that point had been the architect who designed the Smiths’ house he knew a lot of songs and was carrying the band. After Robby, Lynn’s brother, came up, the picture changed. The first song was a jam, somebody started something in 5/4 time and it struggled for a bit until Robby yelled out that it’s in 5. Then the drummer got on board and everybody just worked it. The vocalist jammed up some ad-lib lyrics in a kind of Eddie Vedder voice. At the end Robby got to show off a bit, but then the vocalist kind of closed it out.

While waiting for the band to tune up, Rob did another couple of Jimi Hendrix riffs. Just phenomenal. Turns out he knows a thing or two about guitars – wrote the book on Stratocasters.

The Modern Era of the Les Paul Legacy 1968 – 2007

He also has this web site.

The Stratocaster – A True Thoroughbred of Electric Guitars.

In any event, it was a real unexpected treat to get when you’re wishing friends well, to get that kind of a musical experience.

We drove back to Lawrence Welk world, had a dip in the pool at about 9 or 10, then night-night.

Woke up and rode 22 1/2 miles back home in 1:15. Nice ride. Tailwind. Light traffic. Showered and made it to church in time to set up the PA.